Old Tradition, New Target: Rubella

Vaccination Week in the Americas continues a long tradition of Pan American health efforts that have produced such major regional achievements as the eradication of smallpox (in 1977) and polio (in 1994). Pan Americanism helped make the Western Hemisphere the first region to conquer these diseases.

 Highlights from Vaccination Week:

Jamaican cricket champion Courtney Walsh tells parents in a PAHO public service announcement: "Vaccination is an act of love and responsibility. Don't forget."

More recently, Pan American efforts have succeeded in eliminating indigenous transmission of measles from the region. Jon Andrus, chief of the Pan American Health Organization's Immunization Unit, notes that efforts such as Vaccination Week in the Americas are important for consolidating that success.

"The challenge is to maintain the success of measles elimination by minimizing susceptibility. We have to reach out to the 10 to 15 percent who have not been vaccinated. This is about reaching the underserved, and there are multiple gains from doing this."

Priority targets of the initiative, both this year and last, were children who have never been vaccinated or who have not completed their vaccine series.

Vaccination Week in the Americas was also intended to support a newer regional effort to eliminate rubella, or German measles, from the Americas. Rubella causes minor symptoms in adults but in its congenital form can cause serious birth defects or death to babies.

  Highlights from
  Vaccination Week:

Liesel Holler, a medical student and Miss Peru 2004, participated in the launch in Lima.

In 2002, there were 11,244 cases of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) reported in the Western Hemisphere. The region's health authorities have committed themselves to eliminating the disease by 2010.

During Vaccination Week, the Dominican Republic introduced the rubella vaccine into its immunization program, and Ecuador and El Salvador vaccinated men and women against measles and rubella as part of their rubella elimination programs.

"To eliminate rubella, you cannot just target babies," says Andrus. "You have to target everyone, including adult men and women. And that's a challenge: getting everyone across the spectrum and especially vaccinating adults."

Andrus adds that international efforts such as Vaccination Week in the Americas can provide new stimulus for countries to step up their efforts to improve vaccine coverage. Such initiatives also help ensure that regular vaccination becomes "institutionalized," so there is less chance of it being abandoned or scaled back as governments change and different health officials come and go.

"Vaccination Week is a great opportunity to promote Pan Americanism," adds Andrus. "PAHO provides the technical assistance, but it's really the countries that provide the success."